Monthly Archives: March 2014

A few house rules…

Once you’ve blown up the building you let the dust settle ,you announce what you’ll be putting up instead and then you build. This seems a reasonable analogy for what is happening in pension reform. The FCA are issuing invitations … Continue reading

Posted in advice gap, dc pensions, doctors, later life | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

George Osborne ate my pension – a blog by Hilary Salt

This is a blog written on Hilary Salt’s Facebook page which everyone should read. They aren’t my views and I don’t agree with a lot of what Hilary is saying, but this is the first coherently argued position I have … Continue reading

Posted in annuity, dc pensions, de-risking, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

“Annuities George, what took you so long?”

We have failed 1.5m annuitants- what took us so long? Continue reading

Posted in annuity, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Annuity – RIP

  I guess the moment I heard the news on the scrapping of compulsory annuities will stick in the memory like the moment I heard of the death of Elvis/Lennon and Princess Di. All morning we’d heard the helicopters hovering … Continue reading

Posted in auto-enrolment, pension playpen, pensions, Popcorn Pensions, St Paul's | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

All the right funds- not necessarily in the right order (a budget prescient blog)

  I wrote this blog hours before the budget which abolished annuities. For some reason I decided this morning, to write about investment as if annuities didn’t exist. From 2015, for new pensioners- they will no longer be the default, … Continue reading

Posted in auto-enrolment, CDC, corporate governance, dc pensions, de-risking, defined aspiration, Payroll, pension playpen, pensions, Popcorn Pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Tomorrow’s heroes; these are the folk who will solve the AE Capacity crunch

  We’ve been doing some planning at Pension PlayPen towers . Most of our thinking is concentrated on this graph. We predict the capacity crunch at April 2015 which is the point when demand for auto-enrolment services and workplace pensions … Continue reading

Posted in accountants, auto-enrolment, Payroll, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

I’m in- who’s out?

  I’m serving up a dish which may have gone cold in your inbox or may not have reached you at all. Personally I’m not concerned about opt-out rates, even if they crept above the 9% generally advertised. That Ceridian … Continue reading

Posted in advice gap, auto-enrolment, Bankers, brand, Change, corporate governance, Payroll, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Would you vote for the Pension PlayPen?

  When you are building a brand, you need recognition and much as we’d love to be on News at 10 every week, our brand Pension PlayPen can only become relevent if it makes lots of noise. So I spend … Continue reading

Posted in auto-enrolment, Change, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why do we treat charitable pension schemes as if they were for profit?

Charities are charitable and  different – it should go without saying but it seems that many pensions people haven’t worked this out, Why are they different? Firstly they are not for profit and typically view their work as infinitely valuable in … Continue reading

Posted in Charity, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Jollyboys photos

Posted in pensions | 1 Comment